ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC is especially useful for companies wanting to cleanse and update their consumer addresses on a regular basis: Automated address matching and data supply via the internet will optimise business processes at the same time. The settings for address matching are defined and automated according to the company or project requirements. In addition, the transfer and collection of cleansed address data can be automated within the company and take place at regular intervals.

The ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC system uses the data exchange platform of Online Services for transmitting data to and from Deutsche Post Direkt. The universal data exchange platform supports the following types of access (see also ‘Uploading data’): the interactive uploading of data are made possible by the web interface.  

Alternatively, it is possible to transfer your data to the data exchange platform via Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). With this method, you can automate the transmission of data or use an SFTP client as an interface instead of our web interface. We recommend that you use this method if you wish to automate the uploading of data from your IT system or if you regularly use SFTP clients for transmitting data. You can obtain the access details from Deutsche Post Direkt. The result data can also be returned to an external SFTP server.

You need a user name and password to access ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC. A Deutsche Post Direkt employee must set up the ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC system for you. During the setup process, the employee will manually match your data once in order to prepare the ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC system for the format and structure of your data, select the matching settings that are appropriate for your data and determine the format and structure of the output file(s).

This collection of settings is referred to as a configuration and it effectively acts as a template for all your subsequent matchings with the ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC system. Whilst a configuration is usually assigned to a user name, if required it is also possible to use several configurations in parallel. In this case, please specify the name of the configuration to be used when you upload the data using an ID in the file name. This provides you with the option of also using ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC if you wish to regularly upload files with different formats or to perform your matchings with different settings. The number of configurations is limited to an appropriate quantity.

It is important that the record format of the files to be matched always remains the same because the configuration is created for a record format specified by you and stored on the server.

The easiest way of transferring data via Deutsche Post Direkt’s data exchange platform is using the data exchange platform’s web interface. All you need for this at your end is a web browser with access to the public internet. Once you have registered, you will receive a user account and password from us that you can use to upload data to the upload folder of the ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC system.
In terms of their format and structure, the uploaded files must correspond to the agreements that you have concluded with your adviser at Deutsche Post Direkt. Files that do not correspond to the agreed structure will either be rejected by the system or – if the system fails to detect the deviation – an unnecessary matching will be carried out.

Please remember that the uploaded files are matched immediately. Once the matching is complete, you will be notified by e-mail.

You can choose between uploading the file as an unencrypted ZIP archive and using PGP encryption. With this method, you can encrypt the data using our PGP key and then receive the data back in encoded form using your PGP key. The relevant PGP key will be stored in the system. It is also possible to return the data password-encrypted.

The text file to be matched must be uploaded to the upload folder. If you wish to match multiple files via ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC, you can send these files bundled together in a ZIP archive. All the files in this archive must have the same format and structure as you agreed with Deutsche Post Direkt. Multiple files to be matched should be named using the specified naming convention. If several configurations are available, the desired configuration must also be specified, otherwise the standard configuration will be selected automatically.

If you have differently formatted or structured input files or you would like different matchings to be carried out with different matching settings, or you want to filter the provided result files in different ways, our Deutsche Post Direkt adviser will assign multiple configurations to you. A single configuration corresponds to one of your use cases. Each of the configurations will be provided with a name and these names will be communicated to you.

ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC will treat one of the configurations agreed with you as the ‘standard configuration’. The system will then always use this configuration if it does not receive any other information regarding the configuration to be used. Alternatively, you can prompt the system to select a certain configuration by using the character string --<CONFIGURATIONNAME> as part of the name of the uploaded file.

With ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC you can have multiple files cleansed if you upload multiple files that are bundled in a ZIP file. All the files in this archive must have the same format and structure as you agreed with Deutsche Post Direkt. The same matching settings will be applied to each of the files.

If your data are checked for duplicates, the priority order of your files will have an impact on the identification of header duplicates. During this check, ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC proceeds in the following order: as with ADDRESSFACTORY WEB, your own negative files always have priority over your own positive files. Within the negative and positive files, the system proceeds in alphabetical order. If you want a priority order, you can name your files as follows, for example, ‘A_CustomerData.txt’, ‘B_AdditionalCustomerData.txt’ etc.

Please note: a duplicate matching of your positive files can only be performed if you have agreed matching options for the duplicate check with Deutsche Post Direkt in advance as part of your configuration.

ADDRESSFACTORY AUTOMATIC offers you the option of working with your own or predefined negative files such as the Robinson list from the DDV (German direct marketing association) or fake names lists. In order to identify the file uploaded as a negative file, choose a name for the file that starts with a minus sign, e.g., ‘-BadPayers.txt’.

Please note: if you upload a negative file to the system, a duplicate check will only be performed if you have agreed matching options for the duplicate check with Deutsche Post Direkt in advance as part of your configuration. If such an agreement has not been made in advance, your matching will be rejected and you will receive an error message.

The systems are available to you seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Advance notice will always be provided for scheduled maintenance-related shutdowns etc.

ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT is a service whereby individual enquiries are transferred from Deutsche Post Direkt to the matching system, checked immediately and corrected where necessary. The service is available online.

The direct connection between ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT and your systems and the short response time of the Deutsche Post Direkt systems enables addresses to be updated within normal working processes. It can be integrated into your applications using a web service interface.

ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT can be tested in various ways. On the one hand, a free-of-charge test server is provided for this. It provides an implementation of the same interface that the real ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT server also implements. However, the test server only returns static changes to the data transmitted by you and made-up status keys. In order to use the test server, you need to ask us to set up an account for you.

It is also possible to agree a test operation. Here you can test ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT with real keys and results for eight weeks. Please see the price list (see below) for the terms and conditions or contact our customer service hotline (see below).

A web service interface (client) is a local representation of the ADDRESSFACTORY system in your system. The web service client will either be provided by Deutsche Post Direkt (Java) or you can easily generate it yourself (other programming languages).

Web service technology is platform-dependent and is now standard in software development. Thus the ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT web service can be used from practically any programming environment (e.g., C++, .NET, PHP etc.). The networks of a large number of companies are penetrable for web service enquiries since some WWW accesses are permitted there. In many cases it is not therefore necessary to extend the firewall.

For sporadic individual enquiries, we offer you access to the online user interface on which you can enter your data directly and match it. Simply log in using your user name and password at https://service.postdirekt.de/ and follow the links to ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT in order to reach the user interface.

The online user interface of ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT has been tested successfully with Internet Explorer version 8 and higher. Mozilla Firefox can also be used. Alternative browsers such as Safari are not officially supported but have been deployed successfully.

To perform a matching, specify the configuration settings in advance. Your adviser at Deutsche Post Direkt will be happy to inform you about the relevant options and will provide you with the appropriate configurations for your matchings.

Response times depend upon the selected network connection. Where there is a good connection over the public internet, the response time is less than five seconds.

Enquiries are worked through serially. Each address requires less than two seconds on average. To increase the number of enquiries, ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT can be run on several clients at once.

The connection to ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT web services is mainly over the public internet. The protection of your data are ensured by the encrypted transmission protocol HTTPS.

The system for operating the web service client must be able to make enquiries on the public internet via port 443. Only you or your provider can activate this port.

The web service interface is platform-independent. You can therefore use it with all commercially-available operating systems (e.g., Unix, Linux, Solaris, HPUX, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS).

ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT should be embedded into your application the moment a new address is recorded in the system, i.e., the address is sent to the data centre and matched immediately after it is entered. You are responsible for establishing a data connection to Deutsche Post Direkt.

Data encryption will generally be taken over transparently from the web service infrastructure. You will be provided with the information relevant for the connection. Deutsche Post Direkt will provide Java programmers with a ready-to-use web service client which is integrated as a type of library into proprietary programs. Together with the web service client, we shall send an example application with which the first tests can be performed even without programming. The web service interface provides programmers who work with other programming languages with tools for their relevant programming environment via the standard web service. For some programming environments, Deutsche Post Direkt will also provide short examples in the web service documentation.

Deutsche Post Direkt is in charge of registering ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT users and activating their accounts. Your internet provider manages the internet connection. You integrate the web service interface into your application and control the application flow and system failure management (e.g., timeouts).

• You must be activated as an ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT user.
• The web service client must be integrated into your application.
• Port 443 in the firewall must be activated in both directions.
• A data connection from the web service client to Deutsche Post Direkt must be established over the public internet.

The certification key for the Deutsche Post Direkt website (SSL server certificate) is only ever valid for a specific period of time, after which it needs to be renewed with a new certificate. If the certificate has an online link, it will be renewed automatically. If, on the other hand, the certificate is saved locally, it must be replaced manually with the up-to-date certificate in order to ensure continued secure access to our web server.

With ADDRESSFACTORY DIRECT, Deutsche Post Direkt offers a solution in which all essential system components are designed redundantly. You do not need to take any special measures.

Data are transmitted between the web service interface and the reference database of Deutsche Post Direkt using the industry-standard Transport Layer Security (TLS, here https), which is also used in online banking, for example.

The number of enquiries you make is logged, counted and invoiced accordingly by Deutsche Post Direkt.